Need some insight...

[seth|br]

Alright, Heres my specs:

AMD XP 2500+ Barton
1gb Geil PC3200
Abit NF-7S v2.0
SLK-900U w/ 92mm Vantec Tornado screamer
Saphire Radeon 9800Pro 128mb
Compro TV Tuner
CaseTek Super ATX Tower case with Q-Window
PowMax 400W Blue Power supply
Vantec NXP-101 Nexus Multi-Function Panel
Lite-On CDRW/DVD

Right now ive pretty much been stuck at 205x11 @ 1.7vcore. probably could do 11.5 if i upped the vcore. my best 3dmark score was a 16168 (http://service.futuremark.com/servlet/Index?pageid=/orb/projectdetails&projectType=6&projectId=6839085). My best score while o/c the videocard was 16,097 (http://service.futuremark.com/servlet/Index?pageid=/orb/projectdetails&projectType=6&projectId=6839156). Anything over 420 it would reset itself to the lowest value of 215 when running 3dmark2k1. i am using powerstrip.

shouldnt i be seeing higher numbers? whats holding me back? and is there a better program than powerstrip, because its not being very good to me. Im just a little disappointed...

i feel bad when my 9800pro cant out run a 9500pro :stick:

[BrainStorm]

You might try running RivaTuner for your vid card oc. It seemed to work ok for me. You ought to be able to break 18K pretty easy with your rig. I would suggest that software may holding you back. Most guys benching have a bench set-up with a clean OS and 3dMark and little else. There are also optimizations for the ATI driver settings that could help. Suggest you try checking at Rage3D forums for that sort of info.

The other thing you ought to know is most folks going for max bench score are running their hardware at the ragged edge - just stable enough to make it through 3dMark - not stable enough for everyday use.

Just for an example - my rig is pretty comparable to yours, maybe not even as good. Here's my 9800 NP 3dMark2001 score to compare. Note that this was not a pretty run - snow in 3dMark - but made it through.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6722943

[MrLavender]

A 2500+ @ 205x11 should be scoring over 18k with a 9800 Pro stock. Have you left AA/AF turned on? We might be able to help more if your project urls weren't invalid...

I use RivaTuner for o/c'ing my 9800 pro too.

[seth|br]

Hmm they work for me, how do i link to them? AA and AF are both off and I have the latest catylist drivers...

[MrLavender]

You need to publish them and then copy the Compare URL, not what is in the address bar.

Here is my 2500+ @ 200x11, 9800 Pro stock - 18559 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6840447).

[seth|br]

Alright thanks. heres (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6839085) my latest bench with a 205x10.5 o/c and a 398/351 o/c on the 9800pro. im still working my way up with the 9800pro, but anywho theres the latest...

[twiztdskatr]

Yikes thats a hideously low overclock for a 9800Pro! My PowerColor is can bench at 480/375 with stock cooling and volts!

[seth|br]

as i said before im still working my way up. but still with stock settings on the 9800pro i still should be in the 18k range correct? something is wrong here :mad:

[MrLavender]

It REALLY does look like you have AA/AF on.

I've just remembered this. When I first got my 9800 Pro I installed a tweak program called Rage3d Tweak which had a really weird bug. If you ran a 3d program at the same resolution as the desktop it ignored your custom AA/AF settings. I've never used Powerstrip but maybe it has the same bug? I was getting scores around what you have now.

[seth|br]

well, i am running at 1280x1024x32 and heres what my situation is:

[MrLavender]

Umm, why have you got textures etc set to high? It should be like this;

[seth|br]

alright i really have no clue whats going on now

[MrLavender]

:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

Do you have any tweak utilities still installed as well as RivaTuner? If so uninstall them. You may need to un-install/re-install the catalysts as well because some of them don't clean up the registry properly when they uninstall.

The only other thing that could cause such a low score is if you've overclocked the card too far and it's stuttering. Run it at stock speed until you get this sorted, it's one less thing to go wrong.

[spaceman]

Originally posted by seth|br
well, i am running at 1280x1024x32 and heres what my situation is: There's half your poblem, change your res to 10x7, and refresh rate to 60 Hz. ;) Those settings look pretty crappy in games, but use them while benching. :)

[MrLavender]

Originally posted by spaceman
There's half your poblem, change your res to 10x7, and refresh rate to 60 Hz. ;) Those settings look pretty crappy in games, but use them while benching. :) I thought he meant he was running the desktop at that, not the benchmark...:doh:

[Ewok]

Originally posted by twiztdskatr
Yikes thats a hideously low overclock for a 9800Pro! My PowerColor is can bench at 480/375 with stock cooling and volts!

my max stable settins with zero artifacts in 3dmark 2003 are 397/354 on my connect3d, and i got it from the same shop as lavender within a week of him (just before they went bankrupt). his goes faster but he isnt using stock cooling so cant really tell if its any better, but it does seem to be extremely poor. Its also the second 9800 pro ive had, and my first one was even worse!

[seth|br]

well i just got a 16,789 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6840700) with the same settings as the last bench. my desktop setting is 1280x1024x32, should i change it to 10x7 or would it matter. And this is a FRESH install of windows, just installed the catylist drivers today and no other tweak tool is installed besides rivatuner :)

[MrLavender]

A difference of 1,500 between 2 benches with identical settings says to me that your card is stuttering because it is clocked too high. Run it stock with the control panel settings at high performance like my pic and if you don't get 18k something is still wrong.

Yes, you should set your desktop to 1024x768 60Hz for optimal performance but its only worth a few points, not thousands...

BTW, you are running dual-channel memory yes?

[seth|br]

not sure, i have this (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?description=20-144-304) stuff though...i think i need some better ram

alright my pc is weird, just did a stock video card run and did a 16,276 (http://service.futuremark.com/servlet/Index?pageid=/orb/projectdetails&projectType=6&projectId=6840778). i did a stock run yesterday and ran a 13k :confused:

[Hell-Fire]

That mem should run 2-2-2-6 timgins fine if only going to 205fsb. Check your vmem in bios and ramp that baby up to as high as your bios allows. I am not familiar with the NF7 bios settings, but Geil can take quite a bit of voltage. If ya cant get as high as 3.0-3.2, then I bet you can easily run 205fsb (maybe lil more) at tight timings.

His timings may be killing him as well guys,,,,if he lets bios set them, then maybe they are whack!..? The bios could default them to an ugly 2.5 or worse 3.0 CAS :eek:

For all we know at this moment he is sitting on 205fsb (which isnt to terrible for NF2, but timings of 2.5(3.0) -4-4-8.

[seth|br]

alright, 2-2-2-6 means cas 2 then 2-2-6 correct? my vmem is up to 2.9 and thats as much as the bios allows. anybody have a link on how to do the vmod?

[KennethChong]

You may be having some windows probs. I had a very wierd thing happen to me a while back, heres the link to the thread.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15984

[Peen]

Maybe a re-install of the videodrivers may help. Did you install the video drivers before the nvidia chipset drivers? i heard if you install video drivers before the chipset drivers it can whack a good 5k off your score